The increased attention towards robotics
Covid19 suddenly brought not only Supply Chain as a function in the limelight, but also the importance of Digital and AI tools in Manufacturing and Warehouse space into limelight. More and more leaders are now looking to make a business case to embrace these technologies, which may have helped them avoid many aspects of disruption during the crisis and hence will mitigate risks from similar events in the future.
Business case fallacy -Too much focus on Labor reduction
In my experience, a common trap that many executives fall into when developing business case for Smart automation is that they tend to focus on labor reduction. While intelligent robots will indeed reduce headcount, the benefits of smart robotics are numerous, many of which go beyond vanilla labor reduction. Focussing too much on headcount reduction in your business case actually may lead few stakeholders to look at this negatively, tehreby masking the true benefits of implementing intelligent robotics on your warehouse floors.
A Suggested framework
So what should be the approach towards developing a robust business case ? My this video summarizes, at a high level, how you should structure your business case for Intelligent robotics in your warehouses. A subsequent video will focus on how to calculate cost benefits to include in your business case.
